A bunny, Chasing a fox
by naturecrow
Summary: A story that heavily follows the original concept of Zootopia, images and quotes will be written for each chapter in my profile, to show where some places or characters were taken from. The story begins with a day in the life of Nick, a fox living a rather hard life in a city called SunCity, where every predator must wear a shock collar. critics are wanted and appreciated
1. A green eyed fox's day

"Sun City, a place where every animals can live together peacefully and in security. Sun City, the utopian city!" That's why I protect this city, to conserve its security and its beautiful harmony.

-Judy Hops

"Sun City, a place where every animals can live together peacefully and in security. Sun City, the utopian city!" That's why I will never stop seeing this city as the biggest comedy show.

-Nick P. Wilde

Nick Wilde wakes up in his improvised bed, in a drawer. This apartment was built for bigger animals than a fox, but at least, it is still a luxury apartment! Almost. If you get used to the permanent water leaks coming from the pipes standing out. Anyway, this three room apartment is enough for a fox like Nick.

Getting up, Nick heads for his small bathroom, watching his step so as not to hurt his head against a pipe. Half awake, he looks himself in the mirror, rubs the fur on his neck while adjusting his collar that threatens him of a painful shock at the detection of anger. Noticing the tired look on his face, he shakes himself and adopt a more confident look with a smile on the side. By using a toothpaste called "dent-so dull" he brushes his teeth. Following his routine, he enters his shower and washes his fur with a special shampoo for semi-long fur.

Getting out of the shower, Nick dries himself and then looks at a motivational poster on his wall. "Make it happen!" with a smile, he says to himself "hmm, if I was a wizard I would make a lot of things happen." He then then sprays himself with a product called "musk destroyer". He finishes his routine by dressing himself with a pale blue shirt with an already knotted tie from yesterday and grey pants. A businessman must look credible after all. At least a little bit.

Leaving his apartment, Nick runs into the establishment's owner leaning against a wall. Bord, is a fat, lazy bear. He is also rather boring, so no one wants to talk to him, including Nick. The bear also wears a shock collar like every other predator, in case he "follows his aggressive predator's instincts." The collars may be unpleasant for predators, but it is for the security of the utopian city after all! Nick often likes to joke around preys saying that he is glad he has his shock collar, otherwise he would jump at the throat of everyone!

Bord watches Nick and tries to start a conversation "slept well, Nick?" as he tries to hurry out of the building, Nick answers that he had a wonderful night. In a monotone, the bear continues "you know, I dreamed I was watching television today" leaving the building, Nick answers "well, what an exciting dream! Sorry Bord but I have a very important appointment, bye!" without allowing Bord to answer back, the fox in a hurry goes outside. Living in the rainforest district, he is greeted with a heavy rain.

Nick heads towards bus stop and waits in queue behind other animals: a panther dressed up in a sports uniform and a mother squirrel with her daughter. Taking his flip phone out, Nick checks out the news: PAWX NEWS: "a predator (an otter) kidnapped a baby elephant!" Nick reads news articles only to pass the time, because he finds that most articles are completely out of relevance.

The little squirrel child, after starring at Nick for quite some time suddenly asks his mother "Mom, why does the fox has an old phone?" her mother, surprised, attempts to answer her daughter, but Nick quickly interrupts her while showing his phone to the little creature under the rain "it is because new phones are very, very expensive, so, I save a lot by buying an old phone that way, I stay rich. Plus, this one is water resistant!" the little squirrel immediately answers "wow, this is so smart! I will never buy a new phone so I'm going to get rich too! You heard mom?" The bus finally arrives and the panther enters it first, followed by the mother squirrel telling her daughter: "Do not talk like that to strangers, Sarah!" the mother, that is probably a quarter of the fox's size turns back to Nick and smiles awkwardly. He answers with a smart smile while entering the bus.

The squirrels are standing on a boundary intended for smaller mammals. Nick notices that the mother whispers something to his daughter, but doesn't give it too much attention, instead, he continues looking the news on his phone "the polar mafia makes another victim!" The innocent squirrel answers her mother with a louder voice "But, why especially foxes?" the mother, embarrassed, turns to take a look at the fox, but Nick is pretending he didn't hear anything and keeps watching his phone. To avoid hearing anything else, he takes out his giraffe earphones with a wire way too long for his height. Thankfully, the wire is folded to adapt for his size. Plugging it on his phone, he listens to music for the rest of the way. (The Way, by fastball)

Now in HappyTown, Nick leaves the bus while giving a nice, thankful smile to the driver. HappyTown is a part of town where he lived with his parents. It is a rather poor place, but many of Nick's friends live here. He enters an abandoned house of his size, who knows, maybe foxes lived here. Underneath this house, his friend honey, a female badger, lives in a bunker. She's kind of crazy, she believes in a conspiracy on sheep and seems to dedicate her life accusing sheep for every problem in the world.

In the kitchen of the house, Nick takes a phone on a table with a wire leading to below the sink. He dials the number "666". A fast voice answers: "Who are you?" Nick responds with a humorous tone: "It's me, your favorite fox!" Still serious, Honey responds "Password.". "What? There's a password now? Your hidden bunker and phone number wasn't enough?" the badger persist "Password!" In a falsely disappointed way, Nick says "Well, it's a shame that I never knew the password and that my own friend doesn't trust me, I'll have to give all the new secret information I found on out on our sheep president to someone else!" after a moment of hesitation, the badger speaks "alright… I'll open you the door, but next time, know that the password is: felagul, misepo, tamiramiref, segogulamalipum. I cannot take the risk of letting a sheep in disguise enter." A trap door opens from beneath the sink.

Nick goes down the ladder, then finds himself in the bunker of Honey. Multiple sheets, plans and maps related to sheep are placed in a disorganised fashion on the metal walls. Various objects are lying all over the floor, some of them are "weapons" against sheep, such as shears, thistle guns, and paint grenades.

Honey is standing in front of Nick. "Alright then, tell me everything."

Smelling a strong badger smell in the room, Nick asks, "Honey, dear, could you use products that reduce the smell of your musk, please?"

Honey, surprised, answers "No, these products are indirectly made by sheep to transmit diseases. Also, I don't smell anything weird here… so you said you had information?"

Nick, smiling, says "yes but first, you shall give me information"

"Oh no. No. Nope. I know that smile! It's never good!" says the badger, pointing her finger at the fox.

Still smiling, Nick replies "well, you wouldn't want to lose valuable information about sheep now would you? I just want to know where I could find a sheep barber shop."

"Why would you want to know this?" Asks Honey, confused.

Nick, answers: "I am thinking about getting myself some money by picking up sheep wool and then donate it to sick sheep at the downtown's hospital. These sheep don't have wool anymore and are in need of donations."

Still confused, Honey continues questioning him "But it's a donation, you can't make money out of that!"

"If I look miserable enough, I'm sure the hospital's manager could return me a small donation too." Says Nick

Honey heads towards a wall full of maps and snatch a small one titled "companies owned by sheep". Showing the map to Nick, Honey explains the location of a sheep barber shop while he nods at her directions.

"Well, thanks for everything Honey, it was nice to visit you, bye!" says nick turning his back.

The badger, holding Nick's shoulder, says "Hey! You said you would give me information about sheep!"

Nick mockingly replies "I think sheep count badgers before falling asleep!" as he takes off the badgers paws from his shoulder.

Honey, frustrated, says "I knew that you knew nothing! You're only a liar, you aren't helping your stereotype, do you know that?"

Nick, climbing the ladders, says "Relax Honey, or you risk triggering your collar. You should go outside more often and breathe some fresh air, if you want, I'll even buy you an ice cream!"

Just before Nick shuts the trap door, Honey says "Hey, don't forget the password!"

By taking another bus, Nick finally arrives at the sheep barber shop: "cheap sheep shearing!"

Casually, Nick enters the shop, takes a garbage bag he found lying on the floor, and starts picking wool that fell on the ground. A wooldresser notices Nick "What the hell are you doing here, fox?" Nick naturally responds "I work here, didn't the boss told you? I'm cleaning up the place." Laughing, the sheep replies " hahaha, the boss, you have him before you! But if you really want to volunteer cleaning my shop, by all means, continue. But remember, I'll keep an eye on you." With a smug smile, Nick replies "I knew we would come to an understanding" as he continues to pick up all the wool he finds until he fill two bags of his size. "Chao! Thanks for everything!" says Nick as the sheep boss shakes his head, confused to see a fox with bags filled with his client's wool.

Arriving at the hospital, Nick enters the "medium sized animals" section and heads towards the reception counter where a gazelle greets him "Hello, what can I do for you?" "I have two bags filled with sheep wool for patients who lost their wool!" The gazelle, surprised to see the quantity of wool Nick carries, says she has never seen such a quantity of wool for donation, she then leaves to get her manager. The manager, a female deer, come to the counter and looks down to the fox that is way smaller than her.

With a monotone, she says "okay, not bad. And why would you do such a big donation?"

Nick enthusiastically responds "well, my children and I were in the mood to help sheep in need, so we went door to door collecting sheep wool!"

Skeptical, both preys look at each other, then the manager turning back to Nick, replies "So you want money in return, is that it?"

Nick is surprised by her answer, but still continues his play "No, It's a pure donation, my children helped me collecting because they knew how hard it is to be sick."

The manager, still with a cold tone responds "I do not pity you fox, stop trying. You will get nothing and we do not want your "wool" found in a shifty alley. Now please, leave before I call security."

Nick, stressed, quickly answers "No, wait! This is real wool, I swear! I have no children, but I really am poor! Could you at least give me a little gratitude gift?"

Always coldly, the deer answers "nice try" and calls security to the "medium sized animals" section.

Containing his anger, Nick smiles at the receptionist and at the manager. He turns his back and leaves the hospital with the two big bags without looking at the customers around staring at him. Outside, he throws the two bags in a trash container. Today is a day without profit.

It's already nighttime. Back in the rainy rainforest district, Nick stops by an insect store to buy a locust Burger. The predators obviously can't eat meat, so they content themselves to eat insects and fish instead. The small restaurant was full of predators of any kind, shock collars could be seen everywhere. "A small locust hamburger please. Oh and it's a takeout" says Nick, emptying his wallet of his last bucks. Trying not to wet his burger under the rain, Nick finishes his meal before arriving in front of his apartment building. He notices that Bord is strolling in the hall. To avoid a conversation with the bear, Nick takes out his long earphones and pretends to listen to music. Entering the building, he hears the bear say "Hi Nick, wanna tell me about your day today?" Nick doesn't stop himself from walking and points his headphones in his ears. The bear simply nods and waves Nick goodbye.

Arriving home, Nick takes deep breaths, his eyes are filled with tears and he is shaking but he isn't crying yet.

His neighbors heard two cries. One of desperate anger, and one of pain.


	2. Possibilities

In the middle of the night of Sun City's Downtown, reporters are closely encircling a car crash. In the middle, assistant mayor Hammy Pink and police officer Judy Hops are standing, reporters are swarming the pig and the bunny with questions: "did Judy hops saved your life?" "Were you surprised to found the mayor in the car crash?" "Was the predator trying to kill you?" "Could the assistant mayor have died if you weren't here?" Judy, unlike Hammy pink casually answering questions, feels much muffled. In hopes of answering every question at the same time, she says loudly "alright listen up, I will tell how it happened and after that, I won't answer any more questions, I have other things to do." Many reporters turned to Judy, pointing their microphones to her.

''I was patrolling close to the incident when someone reported over my radio that a serious car crash happened near me and a car was on fire. It took me only a minute to get to the incident, the fire wasn't so bad. I got the pig out of the burning car and found out it was the mayor, yes I was surprised but she is a Sun City's citizen like everyone else, so she didn't get special treatment. After this, I dragged the wolf off of the other car, he was unconscious. The assistant mayor told me to arrest him, because apparently he tried to kill her. Just as a precaution, yes, I cuffed and muzzled him. Then backup came and picked him up. I don't know if he was trying to kill her or not and I don't know what is going to happen to him. Also, yes, I am glad to have saved Ms. Hammy Pink. That is all.

As Judy returns back to her police car, the media, especially the stubborn "pawx news" team, is still trying to get more answers "can predators be dangerous when driving?" "Are some criminals trying to kill Hammy Pink?" Ignoring the questions, Judy starts off the car and leaves. The assistant mayor, on the other side finds pleasure answering as much as she can: "yes, I think that predator was trying to kill me, his car was way bigger and he drove straight at me" "Of course, we should incorporate a stricter Code of Conduct."

Judy, driving back to the police station, puts background music in her car to relax her from all that pressure she had with the media. (I'm like a bird by 'furnado'). Why was there so many reporters? She asks herself. Was it just because it was the assistant mayor? She just did her job. Anyway, her work is almost over, the only thing left to do is put some papers in order and then she's free to get a nice sleep back home.

Nick wakes up but doesn't get up. He just lays in his bed, looking at his dripping roof, contemplating the world around him. How could such a crazy city not fall apart? Or maybe it will one day, maybe it's just a fragile house of cards. Maybe someone just has to poke it, to challenge its structure. Or maybe, it's already a broken house of cards. That's most likely it, a broken, stupid city, full of stupid animals, full of-

Nick's thoughts get suddenly interrupted as his cellphone vibrates. Looking at the notification he received, he frowns a little. Duke Weaselton, a weasel he knows because of his pickpocketing skills, sent him a text message. He's only a contact like many others Nick have. Just someone that he could work with to get money. Nick doesn't have a lot of friends, in fact, he doesn't have a single real friend he could go out with and enjoy a walk together. If he knows someone, it is because he needs them to make a little money, and if they know him, it was for the same reason. A sly fox that is a con artist can be very useful for a lot of animals.

The message he received from the weasel was oddly short: "come to my apartment building I have something big". Annoyed by the fact that the weasel seemed to act "mysterious" Nick tries to hide the fact that he is intrigued and replies "big for you, little weasel". But the number was no longer in service. The fact that Weaselton managed to delete his phone number after the message scared but intrigued Nick even more. Maybe he really has something big to say. Well, he has nothing to lose, finally getting out of bed, Nick quickly does his morning routine and goes out.

By taking a bus, he arrives at his destination, in happy town again. The apartment building Weaselton lived in was even crappier than his. It was about 6 stories high, the doors and apartment windows were made for smaller animals like ferrets and bunnies, but there was a bigger door enveloping a smaller one for bigger animals. Nick noticed before entering a polar bear waiting in his car just outside the building. Looking at his fancy clothing, Nick noticed the polar bear was probably from the tundra mafia. It was probably the worst mafia of SunCity, what was he doing here? Hoping it doesn't concerns someone in the apartment building, Nick stops staring at the bear and enters it. The hallway was fortunately also adapted for bigger animals, even the windows were at a good height. But it didn't mean the building was any less crappy, the walls weren't even painted. Nick goes upstairs to the 3rd floor, where Duke Weaselton's apartment was. He was about to knock on his door when it unexpectedly opens. Weaselton comes out smiling mischievously with his paws behind his back.

Nick annoyed, replies "Please, Duke not-so-wise-elton, just get to the point."

The weasel, still keeping his smile responds "I called you because I knew you were the kind of fox that would know how to make money with the treasure I have" He then stomped on Nick's feet, saying "Don't you call me names, fox!" as Nick yipped.

"Why did you do, that? Wait, HOW did you do that?" asks Nick as he notices Weaselton's collar is turned off."

Weaselton, excited, gives Nick a controller "Look at it, that's the treasure I was talking about! It can deactivate your collar! Imagine the things we could do with this! We could deactivate some collars in exchange for money!" Nick, surprised by the rectangular controller, but also worried, looks at it. It only has two buttons: on and off.

Turning back to the weasel Nick asks "I bet that thing is very illegal, where you found this?" casually, he replies, "I stole it from Kozolov" Kozolov was the godfather of the tundra mafia, Nick couldn't believe what he heard.

"Kozolov? Are you crazy? "Before the weasel could reply, Nick quickly remembered the polar bear he saw outside the building "oh no…" "What?" says Weaselton. Wide eyed and talking very fast, Nick says "quick, we need to get out of here, Kozolov's men followed you, there was a polar bear outside he must-" before he could finish, they heard heavy footsteps climbing up the stairs. Weaselton looking very stressed, Tells Nick "w-wait here, I will talk to them"

Two big polar bears come up the stairs, and are stare straight in the fox and the weasel's eyes. They do not look very happy and… their collars… were turned off.

As the weasel slowly walks towards them, Nick whispers to him "This is suicide!" but Weaselton keeps walking. Looking down their feet at the weasel, the polar bears seem to wait for an explanation. "It's the fox I swear, look he has the controller, get him!" That stupid weasel! Thinks Nick. One of the polar bears grabs Weaselton By the neck while the other one walks straight towards Nick. Recoiling back Nick turns looks around him for a way out. The window at the end of the hallway, It's the only way! Turning around Nick runs towards it while the polar bear, having noticed his intentions, starts running too. Closing his eyes and hoping he won't break any bones, Nick jumps out of the window, breaking it into pieces and falls from 3 stories on the grass. Landing on his back, Nick gets up fairly easily "Ow" It hurt but at least he didn't break his legs if he was able to get up, being light has its advantages. Not even looking back at the building, Nick runs, he runs literally for his life, passing on red lights, making cars honk, he doesn't care, he does not look back and he keeps running like tiredness never existed. After almost a kilometer he finally stops and rests his back against a wall in an alley. Panting, he peeks out of the alley to see if someone followed him. What a relief, it doesn't seem like it.

Getting back to reality, he notices he still has the remote on his paw. He looks at it like it was a rotten bug burger. Looking at a garbage container he considers throwing it away to avoid problems… but this thing could solve a lot of others too.

Nick waits in a coffee shop in the rainforest district near his home for his friend Finnick. He works with him a lot, he is a rough Fennec. Nick needs to figure out what to do with this remote and that fennec is the only person he knows that he could trust, at least a little. Still waiting for him, he sends him another text "Are you coming or not?" Finnick immediately replies "Calm down your tail I'm not your pizza delivery guy, I will arrive when I want to!" Tough guy that Finnick, Nick says to himself. While he waits for him, Nick unfolds a newspaper that was on his table and reads the headline

"Bunny cop now becomes best cop In SunCity!" Nick thinks to himself: "huh, at first people were laughing at the first bunny police officer, and now she is the best in the city. Sometimes I love the craziness that city brings."

Hearing the door of the shop open, Nick turns to his side to notice Finnick entering. He had sunglasses. Nick loves when Finnick wears those, he looked like a little thug, which he actually is. Finnick is the kind of animal that always looks angry, but isn't really. That's great for him, if he really was an angry living being, he would probably get shocked to death by his collar. Finnick jumping on a chair in front of him, greets Nick with his deep voice.

"Well here I am, what the hell do you want?"

"Hey Finnick, you look pretty tough today, it must be the glasses" says Nick, smirking

Pulling them out and revealing his brown eyes, Finnick replies: "Quit the boring jokes and spit out what you want to say"

"Well, It's about that thing" Nick warps the controller in the newspaper and gives it to Finnick so he can give it a look

The fennec unwraps it, takes a glimpse of it and gives the controller back to Nick.

"Okay, so what the hell is it?"

Nick, putting the controller back in his pocket, answers: "this controller can deactivate our collars."

"Where the fox did you found that?"

"Do you know Weaselton?"

"Yea, I know him, and I don't like him"

"Well, he stole it from Kozolov"

"What? That weasel is crazy! Why do you have it now?"

Nick, leaning back into his chair, explains in details the events that happened in Weaselton's apartment block. Finnick hears the fox with a stupefied look on his face.

"Nick you are a genius for keeping that controller but also an idiot for jumping through a window"

"Well I actually wanted to ask you advices about it. Should I just throw it away?"

"No don't throw it away, are you crazy? You can do a lot of things with that, you can make money and use it personally if you ever need it one day."

"Yea I guess. I just hope I won't get tracked by the police or Kozolov or something…"

"Kozolov probably has a hundred of them, he tracked Weaselton because he disrespected him, that's all, and the police doesn't know anything so you can sleep peacefully."

"You're right Finnick. I'll think about it tomorrow, I'm tired right now, I think I'm going to bed now."

"I can't guaranty that I won't murder you in your sleep because you called me a cutie the other day, so watch out"

Laughing, Nick replies "Alright I'll watch out how cute you are, don't worry"

Finnick leaves first, putting his sunglasses on even though he is in the rainforest district. What a show off, thinks Nick.

Nick finishes a water bottle he bought earlier and then heads home, where he sleeps, indeed peacefully, but with mixed feelings of excitement and wonder.


End file.
